Jezebel
leftovers
Posts Tagged “
Weight
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leftovers
womb raiders
When Did Baby Weight Become Just Plain Fat?
A week or two ago I glanced up from my laptop long enough to catch my first glimpse of a commercial whose audio I had heard dozens of times before. It was for Nutri-System, and the audio consisted of a woman's claim to have lost 41 pounds following the weight-loss regimen. Is that Jillian Barberie? I wondered, unaware that the morning television personality I had watched habitually for years as a resident of Los Angeles in the earlier part of this century had since changed her name to Jillian Barberie-Reynolds or, more to the point, that she had become fat. (And, mercifully, thin again.) I consulted Google: indeed, she had gained 41 pounds. And what unfortunate fate had occasioned this traumatic bloat in Jillian's trademark svelte frame? Oh, pregnancy. Hmm. Well, then. It is now a few weeks later, and I find myself mulling the merits of Lisa Marie Presley's libel lawsuit against the Daily Mail for a related phenomenon, the equation of the weight gained due to one's pregnancy with weight gained due to eating an excess of food. More »
clips
Sometimes It's Mom -- Not Media -- Who Gives Girls Eating Disorders
An episode of Intervention aired last night that featured a very sick family. Caylee is a 21-year-old who is addicted to heroin and cocaine, and also has had an eating disorder since she was a young girl. It seems as though the entire family blames her body issues on her mother Christy, who has suffered from various eating disorders of her own — a combination of anorexia, bulimia, and excessive exercise — for the past 35 years. When Caylee was about 8 years old, Christy let her know that she was getting pudgy and began policing the food she ate, guilting her into avoiding French fries, and instilling in her a fear of food and body fat that she's struggled with her entire life and turning her to hard drugs. The family arranged an intervention for her, but when interventionist Jeff VanVonderen got a load of Christy, he decided that she needed to be in treatment as well. Clip above.
Related: Parents In Denial About Children's Weight Problems [Science Daily]
Weighty Issues
In the latest news about women hating their bodies, a study out of UPenn reports that women often bypass medical procedures from routine check-ups to mammograms for fear of having to step on a scale in front of others. The thought of having to be weighed in a hallway or under the potentially-judgmental eyes of a nurse is enough to make women not see a doctor, even if they need help. The heavier the woman, the study found, the more likely she is to avoid a medical office; not surprisingly,overweight women may be prone to greater health risks because they are less likely to get preventative care they need. [NYT]
In the latest news about women hating their bodies, a study out of UPenn reports that women often bypass medical procedures from routine check-ups to mammograms for fear of having to step on a scale in front of others. The thought of having to be weighed in a hallway or under the potentially-judgmental eyes of a nurse is enough to make women not see a doctor, even if they need help. The heavier the woman, the study found, the more likely she is to avoid a medical office; not surprisingly,overweight women may be prone to greater health risks because they are less likely to get preventative care they need. [NYT]
getting heavy
Fat Isn't Contagious, So Why Doesn't Anyone Want To Sit Next To This Woman?
Kim Brittingham appeared on the Today show this morning because she made a fake book called Fat Is Contagious: How Sitting Next To A Fat Person Can Make YOU Fat and "read" it on New York City subways and buses (see clip, above). Kim claims that reactions varied: "a lot of people appeared to be jotting down the title and author" of the faux tome, she says, and one guy "bolted for the back of the bus." Uh, really? A New Yorker fled because of a phony self-help book? Anyway, her point, though she doesn't really say it, seems to be that people treat her like she's got leprosy, since she's overweight. And when it comes to the F word — fat — just when is it "OK" to say it?More »
girls on film
It's Not Always Easy Looking Like A Fat Hooker
This week's New Yorker runs a short notice about Margot Roth, a first-time filmmaker who set out to make documentary showing "real" nude women, with all of their not-so-perfect parts exposed (the New Yorker describes her as the "Bob Guccione of bulgy everywomen"). When Roth shot the film — now called Fifty Nude Women: A Musical Montage — in 2001, the set was bursting with "girl-bonded giddiness." Some of the participants gathered to watch the film recently, and the reaction seemed a little more subdued. "'I'm thinner now," Heather Allison, a 30-year-old university administrator said, as a shot of her as an odalisque revealed an upper-abdomen paunch. 'I was still coming off my women's-college weight gain." I can understand Allison's need to tell people she's thinner in real life — because that's exactly how I felt after Tracie and I did the American Apparel video. More »
The year was 1934. The device? One of the most terrifying contraptions ever conceived: A scale, which, for a penny, announces your weight out loud. "Persons who are hard of hearing can amplify the tone, and there is no chance of misinformation, since the machine repeats the weight several times." Yes, that's right, several times. Plus, "the machine is equipped with a loudspeaker." Shudder! (Click the picture for the full advertisement.) [Modern Mechanix]
broadsides
Breaking: We're All Gonna Die
- According to a new government study, a few extra pounds won't kill you! [ABC News]
- Or they will kill you! Science daily says the overweight risk dying from cardiovascular disease, and the underweight have increased mortality from a shitload of other diseases! [Science Daily]
- Guess what? A TON of other things besides your weight can make you kick the bucket. If you're angry a lot, you'll probably have stroke. If you pee in the ocean, you'll get eaten by a shark. Here's a list of 48 other things you probably shouldn't do unless you want to die. [MSNBC]
- Your kids could die if they eat the beads from an Australian toy called Bindeez. Ingesting the toy was found to mimic the effects of roofies! [Wall Street Journal]
body issues
Love Your Body, Even If It's Shaped Like A Brick
The Daily Mail reports that UK style gurus Trinny and Susannah have identified 12 body shapes. In addition to the ones you're used to — Pear, Apple, Hourglass — the ladies add new, exciting shape descriptions: Cello! Goblet! Bell! Lollipop! Uh, Brick! Skittle! Cornet! (A cornet is a trumpet, see, and there's an ice cream cone called Cornetto. A skittle is basically a bowling pin. It's the UK!) And so, although there are billions of women on this planet, Trinny and Susannah are suggesting that each of them fall into one of these 12 categories — and offer advice for each on how to highlight assets and minimize flaws. (Lollipops look good in bell-bottoms! Kim Cattrall is a Brick! [What??? -Ed.] Skittles should wear high, chunky heels!) More »
weighty issues
Being Weight-Obsessed Makes You the Biggest Loser
Perennial dieters have a new fixation for their weight neurosis: competing with the contestants on the Biggest Loser. According to a New York Times "Thursday Styles" section "trend" piece, The Biggest Loser is bumming viewers out because they're not losing weight as quickly as the contestants on the show itself. The fans don't seem to take into account that each person on The Biggest Loser is sequestered at weight loss boot camp for the duration of the show, divorced from the temptation of new Doritos flavors (Blazin' Buffalo & Ranch!) and undermining office cookie pushers. Even with a team of weight loss gurus at your disposal, reality-show fit clubs are not all they're cracked up to be. British TV presenter Lowri Turner had a pretty shitty time on ITV's Celebrity Fit Club. In fact, her team captain told her before the final episode, ""If you don't lose any weight this week I'm going to punch you in the face." More »
the skinny
Something's Wrong With The Body Mass Index
If you've ever calculated your BMI (body mass index) and groaned at the category you found yourself in, you're not alone. And a post on the blog Feministe links to a collection of photos put together by a woman named Kate Harding. Harding asked friends — and any other women — to volunteer photographs, height and weight information. The result? Pictures that shock. Because a woman with what you might consider to be a "normal" body is, by BMI standards, "overweight." More »
big fat lies
Does Exercise Make You Hungry Instead Of Thin?
Are you sitting down? Are you ready to believe that everything you know is wrong? Because in the new issue of New York magazine, Gary Taubes writes that exercise does not make us thinner. The article is extremely long, but luckily, in the Wall Street Journal today, Bob Cwiklik breaks it down. Taubes admits that working out is great for your health, but, "the one thing that might be said about exercise with certainty is that it tends to makes us hungry." He suggests that what really determines how fat or lean a person is has more to do with the body's own internal programming. Taubes also questions the idea that exercise makes us feel better about ourselves, writing, "This may be purely a cultural phenomenon. It's hard to imagine that the French, for instance, would improve their self-esteem by spending more time at the gym." More »
broadsides
'Boys Don't Cry' Back In The Spotlight
- The man convicted of killing Brandon Teena has recanted part of his confession and is now claiming he was the lone murderer. (Teena's story was the inspiration behind the 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, for which Hilary Swank won the Best Actress Oscar.) One thing kinda irks us about this news story: CNN insists on using his birth name "Teena Brandon" even though he lived and died as Brandon Teena. [CNN]
- That Planned Parenthood in Aurora, IL that was at risk of never opening because of some silly regulation violations? Well, a judge has ruled that the clinic will remain closed. As PP said after the ruling, "We wouldn't be here if this was a foot-care clinic." [Feministing]
weight
Talking About Weight In Black And White
The Huffington Post's Hannah Seligson published an interesting piece today on the issue of women — particularly those in the public eye — and their weight. More »
dance
